Cab-wheel



Z; H. MANN;

Car Whee.v

Patented 0m. 4, 1853.

y ITED 'STATES PATENTl OFFICE.

ZADOK H. MANN, OF NEWPORT, KENTUCKY.

CAR-WHEEL.

Specicaton of Letters Patent No. 10,073, dated October 4, 1853.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, ZADoK H. MANN, of Newport,Campbell county, Kentucky, have invented a new and ImprovedConstruct-ion for Cast-Iron Car and Locomotive vWheels; and I herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionthereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part ofthis specification.

My aim in these improvements, is the construction of a cast iron carwheel that shall combine and embody as much as possible the followingadvantages. An equal rate of cooling and contraction in all parts, by ajudicious distribution and ventilation of the metal. Sufficientprovision for unequal shrinkage or strain. Adequate continuous supportof the rim. Transverse or lateral stability elfected by width of bearingof the connecting portion on the hub and by the brace and counter bracecharacter of the said portion. Avoidance of liability to separate,either athwart the hub, or between the latter and the connectingportion, or across the rim, or in other parts now subject to fracture.The attainment of the requisite strength with the least possible weightof metal.

The numerous plans for wheels brought forward during the last fiveyears, appear as far as known to me to be deficient in one or more ofthe above cited desiderata. All of these plans may be ranged mainlyunder one of two heads,--namely,-those in which the hub and rim areconnected by spokes or those in which they are connected by plates; andsome combine to some extent the advantages of both systems but none thatI know of unites so fully as the plan proposed byme all the desiderataabove recited; especially those of brace and counter-brace, continuoussupport of the rim and lateral stability together with adequateprovision for the strain arising from shrinkage. The spoke wheelsgenerally, are very subject to transverse fracture of the rim, and alsoto the severance of the latter from the spokes near the place ofjunction.

The disk wheels on the other hand, although at present extensivelyadopted are not free from radical defects. The want of an adequatelateral brace and the divergent action of the disk in setting, tend tostrain the two ends of the hub apart, .and cause it frequently tofracture at right-angles to the axis, during the process of boring, or,after- Ward when in use. Another difficulty attending the disk wheels,arises from the practical impossibility of perfectly centering thecores, and the consequent inequality of thickness of the plates, so thatthey have to be run very heavy, amounting to several thousand poundssuperfluous weight in a single train.

Another practical objection in casting the disk wheels arises from thedifficulty of providing a suflicient vent for any mo-isture remaining inor about the core, and as a consequence, a more or less porous formationof the disks, making them treacherous objects of dependence. They arealso liable from the much longer retention of heat about the center,than at the outside, to be undergoing contraction at the center, whilethe parts toward the outside are expanding by crystallization; and theconsequence is, a weakness and liability to part either by a radialfracture across the hub, or by a concentric crack in the plate, near thehub; and I will here observe, that there is with my wheel, not only avery uniform ventilation of the casting, but the slight necessarymoistening of the sand which forms the interstices of the plates at thehub, occasions a beneficial cooling of the central portion.

It is my aim in the present improvement to combine the advantages ofboth classes of wheels, and to avoid their defects.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a. front view and Fig. 2 atransverse section.

(A) is the hub, and (B) the rim of a railroad car-wheel. The web orconnecting portion of the wheel radiates from the hub in the form of anumber of spokes or plates (C) whose depth or dimension parallel withthe axis, is the full length of the hub,-or nearly so,-so as to giveabundant lateral stiffness to the wheel. From the hub, each plateprojects nearly at right-angles from the hub surface, whence divergingalternately to the front and back of the wheel in an easy curve, itbecomes rapidly thinner in the direction parallel with the axle, andthicker in the plane of the wheel; until a little before it reaches therim it has expanded into a plate, (D) which joining with that of thenext alternate spoke on each side, becomes one of a pair of continuousflanges (E)-one at each verge of the concavity of the wheel, thusforming two fianges, and presenting the main substance in the directionof revolution, -which is where the strengthis here wanted.

The curved form given to the'web as represented, enables the parts toaccomm date themselves to any unequal shrinkage without the danger offracture, while at the same time the peculiar form of the web,

operates both as a brace and counterbrace as is evident on inspection ofthe sectional View, Where the dotted lines '(a.) indicate the directa-ndoblique strains which are thus guarded against. The form of the curve isalso such as to present the connecting plates vertically-or nearlyso-'both to the hub and. to the rim, which is the form best adapted tolcommunicate' the strain direct to the plate. i

The wheel although at first sight it might seem otherwise is very easilymolded, the hollow space (b) between the flanges, being formed by asingle dry core in the shape of a ring, which is readily supportedwithout the necessity for anchoring, and the uncertainty attending themolding of the disk Wheels; and this annular core is-with eX- ception ofthe usual one for the axle-the only one required. There is also abundantventilation for the core.

fracture would have either to pass through Itshould also be observedthat the openings (G) in one flange, come opposite the solid portions inthe other one, so that any the wide part of one of the flanges, or torun obliquely across the tread of the wheel. I claim as my invention,and desire to `secure by Letters Patentn The construction-asdescribed-of a cast-iron rail road car and locomotive wheel; whose webor portion connecting the hub and rim,"consists at the hub, of broadradiating plates in the plane of the aXis, whence turning alternately tothe right and to the left, they contract in the direction parallel withthe aXis, and expand proportionally `in the direction of revolution;those of each alternate set uniting as they approach their respectivemargins of the rim-concave, so as to form flanges having openings leftfor each intermediate plate on the other side, forming a braced andcounter-braced wheel possessing the requisite lateral stability andcontinued support at the rim, together with adequate provision for thestrain arising from shrinkage &c. and this I claim, whether the said webbe formed ina cyma reversa curve as described-0r in any waysubstantially equivalent.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand before two subscribingwitnesses.

Z. H. MANN.

Witnesses:

GEO. H. IhNIGHT, F. H. GETZENDONNER.

